1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and system for creating a database and searching the database for allowing multiple customized views which are organization and end user specific, to be generated from a single search engine and a product database.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
With the evolution of the Internet and World Wide Web, it has become necessary, as the number of web sites expands, to provide tools and systems through which web sites can be identified by content and other relevant criteria of interest to a user. As a result, certain computer programs generally known as “search engines” have been developed for the Internet, all of which search throughout the Internet to find specific web sites and topics of interest.
Under current technology, there are primarily five different types of search engines. A first type of search engine is what is known as a “crawler-based” search engine. Examples of such search engines are AltaVista, HotBot, and Lycos. They index sites by using computer programs called crawlers (or spiders, or robots) that follow links through the web and index the contents of every base they come across into a gigantic database.
Human edited directories provide a different type of search engine and are not true search engines. Examples of such search engines are Yahoo, LookSmart and the Open Directory Project. These types of programs are directories that are compiled by human editors. These editors are usually expert in a particular topic, and they review web sites and decide which to include in the directory.
A third type of search engine was developed as a result of the online advertising market shrinking, as a way of turning to alternate sources of revenue. These are known as Pay-Per-Click Options. An example of such a search engine is one commercially known as Overture (formerly GoTo.com.). On such a system, companies can bid for position for selected search terms and they are ranked relative to search results in accordance with how much they paid.
A fourth type of search engine involves engines that rank linked popularity. Google is one such type of engine and for every site it indexes, the engine looks at the number of links pointing at that site from other sites. Some editors of directories also consider site popularity.
Finally, the fifth type of search engine is what is known as a Meta search engine, which pulls other search engines and return results from multiple engines for the users. Examples of such engines are MetaCrawler, Mamma.com, DogPile, and WhatUSeek.
While useful on the Internet, these engines are not necessarily useful for searching proprietary databases linked to web sites accessible from the Internet. These search engines can obtain results from what is known as the “visible web.” A separate part of the Internet is what is known as the “invisible web,” and relates to information that cannot be retrieved in the search results and other links contained in these conventional types of search engine tools.
In this context, most of the invisible web is made up of the contents of thousands of specialized searchable databases. The search results from many of these databases are delivered to the user in web pages that are just for the search. The pages are very often not stored anywhere. Typically such databases are also protected by password and identification (ID) log in entry, and as a result are not accessible by conventional Internet search engines such as web crawlers, among other reasons, because such web crawlers cannot generate the necessary password and ID required for access to such databases.
When searching such databases, it is important to appreciate that they have been configured in a particular manner to address specific client or user needs and not of general interest to the general population. As a result, a number of different search engine technologies have been developed to allow efficient searching of such databases. However, a problem with current technologies involves the fact that even though directly tied to a particular type of database, current search engine technology does not optimize and provide a customized view for a specifically identified customer accessing the database, either directly through a private network or through the Internet.
The problems involved with such prior art systems are accordingly overcome by the system and method described herein.